Knitting Along 2 – Anthology Blanket by the Underground Crafter
You may know that I’ve been knitting along with the Anthology Blanket Knit Along on Underground Crafter.
At 10 squares in, we’re now 1/3 of the way through the blanket. A little while ago, I showed you my first 5 squares, now here are the next 5.
From left to right, top to bottom, there’s Diamonds on Stockinette, Chevron Seed Stitch, Seeded Rib, Ribs & Boxes, and Lattice Crust. I’ve found these have been a great way to practice my basic knitting techniques, and try out some fun textures.
One of the skills I’m really focusing on is learning to “read” my work better. To do this, I’ve been following the patterns only through the first repeat or two, until I have an idea of how it works. From that point forward, I’ve been purposely not counting, but instead looking at my work to find my place and see what comes next. This has meant a lot of tinking, but I think I’m getting better at it!
The hardest part for me is counting knit rows that come after a purl row. I can count the rows easily when they’re all finished and off the needle…but when I’m still working on a knit row and trying to see how many I had done so far, I was always off by one. Then I figured out what I was doing wrong. In the image below, the part highlighted in yellow is actually the top of the purl row. The loop on my needle when working on my last knit row would become the purl bump on the next row (highlighted in orange below). When counting rows, I was counting BOTH the top of the purl row, and the loop on my needle, where I should have been counting only one or the other.
So as you can see, this section has 5 knit rows, not 6. It’s little things like that which can make all the difference! I certainly hope I’m not the only one to ever have made that mistake, did you ever do that? Have you had any knitting or crochet “lightbulb” moments recently?
4 Comments
lorief1
Very informative and helpful!
Pia Thadani
Thanks 🙂
Marie/Underground Crafter
Your squares are looking great, Pia! It took me a while to figure out that tip, too, when I was first knitting :).
Pia Thadani
Thanks! I’m loving the patterns – just challenging enough to keep me interested, but repetitive enough to let me focus on my technique 🙂